CHEK2

Synonyms

Historical Background

Every day, each cell of our body is subjected to up to 1 million DNA lesions. These alterations are induced by genotoxic agents (e.g., chemicals, radiations), harmful metabolites, or DNA replication mistakes.

To prevent the replication of cells with damaged DNA, all organisms have evolved repair mechanisms that, in eukaryotes, are called the DNA-damage response (DDR). DDR is a network of molecular pathways that detect DNA lesions and, depending on the severity, arrest the cell cycle at checkpoints, repair DNA or, in presence of irreparable damage, initiate a program of permanent duplication arrest (senescence) or cellular suicide (apoptosis) (Ciccia and Elledge 2010).

In human cells, the activation of the DDR (Fig.
1) is promoted when sensor proteins find structural distortions or breaks on the DNA and attract to these sites the serine/threonine-protein kinase ATM (also called ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) and the...